diff --git a/pkg/postgres.go b/pkg/postgres.go
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..37f0ceb
--- /dev/null
+++ b/pkg/postgres.go
@@ -0,0 +1,32 @@
+// VulcanizeDB
+// Copyright © 2020 Vulcanize
+
+// This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
+// it under the terms of the GNU Affero General Public License as published by
+// the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
+// (at your option) any later version.
+
+// This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
+// but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
+// MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
+// GNU Affero General Public License for more details.
+
+// You should have received a copy of the GNU Affero General Public License
+// along with this program.  If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
+
+package validator
+
+import (
+	"github.com/jmoiron/sqlx"
+	_ "github.com/lib/pq" //postgres driver
+
+	"github.com/vulcanize/ipfs-blockchain-watcher/pkg/config"
+)
+
+// NewDB returns a new sqlx.DB from env variables
+func NewDB() (*sqlx.DB, error) {
+	c := config.Database{}
+	c.Init()
+	connectStr := config.DbConnectionString(c)
+	return sqlx.Connect("postgres", connectStr)
+}
diff --git a/pkg/validator.go b/pkg/validator.go
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ce8b445
--- /dev/null
+++ b/pkg/validator.go
@@ -0,0 +1,68 @@
+// VulcanizeDB
+// Copyright © 2020 Vulcanize
+
+// This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
+// it under the terms of the GNU Affero General Public License as published by
+// the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
+// (at your option) any later version.
+
+// This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
+// but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
+// MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
+// GNU Affero General Public License for more details.
+
+// You should have received a copy of the GNU Affero General Public License
+// along with this program.  If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
+
+package validator
+
+import (
+	"github.com/ethereum/go-ethereum/common"
+	"github.com/ethereum/go-ethereum/core/state"
+	"github.com/ethereum/go-ethereum/core/state/snapshot"
+	"github.com/ethereum/go-ethereum/ethdb"
+	"github.com/ethereum/go-ethereum/trie"
+	"github.com/jmoiron/sqlx"
+
+	"github.com/vulcanize/pg-ipfs-ethdb"
+)
+
+// Validator is used for validating Ethereum state and storage tries on PG-IPFS
+type Validator struct {
+	kvs           ethdb.KeyValueStore
+	trieDB        *trie.Database
+	stateDatabase state.Database
+}
+
+// NewValidator returns a new trie validator
+func NewValidator(db *sqlx.DB) *Validator {
+	kvs := ipfsethdb.NewKeyValueStore(db)
+	database := ipfsethdb.NewDatabase(db)
+	return &Validator{
+		kvs:           kvs,
+		trieDB:        trie.NewDatabase(kvs),
+		stateDatabase: state.NewDatabase(database),
+	}
+}
+
+// ValidateTrie returns whether or not the trie for the provided root hash is valid and complete
+// Validating the completeness of a modified merkle patricia trie requires traversing the entire trie and verifying that
+// every node is present, this is an expensive operation
+func (v *Validator) ValidateTrie(root common.Hash) (bool, error) {
+	// Generate the state.NodeIterator for this root
+	snapshotTree := snapshot.New(v.kvs, v.trieDB, 0, root, false)
+	stateDB, err := state.New(common.Hash{}, v.stateDatabase, snapshotTree)
+	if err != nil {
+		return false, err
+	}
+	it := state.NewNodeIterator(stateDB)
+	for it.Next() {
+		// iterate through entire trie
+		// it.Next() will return false when we have either completed iteration of the entire trie or have ran into an error
+		// if we are able to iterate through the entire trie without error then the trie is complete
+	}
+	if it.Error != nil {
+		return false, it.Error
+	}
+	return true, nil
+}